Proper cleaning of a firearm after use is essential to ensuring the firearm retains its accuracy, safety, and reliability. With each firing, the breech and bore of a firearm accumulate residue such as powder, priming compound, and copper fragments from ammunition casings. In addition, environmental elements such dirt, snow, and moisture can accumulate in the bore, causing further fouling. Fouling and debris may also accumulate in the firearm's action due to its design, or improper maintenance. Failure to remove the residue and debris results in a decrease in the firearm's accuracy and reliability, and may even pose a safety hazard to the operator. Therefore, proper cleaning is one of the most important elements of firearm ownership.
Civilians who shoot and clean firearms often fashion their own tools to aide in the cleaning process. However, these homemade cleaning tools are generally not portable or lightweight. When cleaning a firearm, components or cleaning tools may be set aside during the cleaning process and, due to their small size, may be misplaced or lost. Therefore, civilians have a need for a lightweight and compact firearm cleaning kit that stores cleaning tools and provides additional storage capability.
Military personnel need to be able to clean their weapons in the field, preferably immediately after shooting so that their firearm is ready for use at all times. An important aspect of the cleaning process is that the cleaning kit be compact and lightweight, organized, and able to store firearm components or spare tools and cleaning supplies. Therefore, military personnel also need for a lightweight and compact firearm cleaning kit that stores cleaning tools and provides additional storage capability for the cleaning of military weapons.
To answer the need for portable, compact, and lightweight storage cases for firearm cleaning materials and tools, many different types of firearm cleaning kits have been designed for military and consumer use. Specialized, compact cleaning kits have been custom-designed to store the precise tools and components needed to thoroughly clean a particular firearm. For example, firearm cleaning tool kits have been designed to store specific cleaning tools such as brushes, picks, scrapers, and rods.
For a team environment, such as a squad of soldiers, a larger weapon cleaning system may be desirable that provides cleaning and maintenance tools for most or all of the squad's weapons, such as 5.56 mm and 7.62 mm rifles, and/or 9 mm and .45 caliber pistols. However, simply “scaling up” the tool insert in an individual firearm cleaning kit has disadvantages. One problem is that, due to its tool layout, it is difficult for multiple users to access the larger cleaning kit at the same time. Another potential problem is that the large number of cleaning tools adds weight to the tool insert, and the attachment mechanism may not be as robust as an individual kit.